A 35-year-old man was shot to death Tuesday night (Sept. 30) outside a Metairie apartment building in the 2400 block of Pasadena Avenue, Jefferson Parish authorities said.

Officers in the area heard the gunfire, and found the man around 9:40 p.m., lying between two apartment buildings, said Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office spokesman Glen Boyd.

Witnesses said he was shot multiple times as he walked to his pickup truck, which was later towed from in front of the apartment building where his family said he lived with his girlfriend.

Family members at the scene identified the man as Karlton Charles. His mother, Carrie Knoten said she had been on the phone with her only child right before he was shot.

"We was just talking," Knoten said, surrounded by more than a dozen family and friends gathered between the apartment buildings that lined both sides of Pasadena Avenue. "I heard him say, 'hey,' (and) then the phone just dropped."

Knoten said her son previously told her that he had been in an argument on Thursday with a man who Charles found sitting on the bed of his pickup truck. She said her son told her the person he argued with had threatened violence against him.

The blazing blue and red lights of multiple sheriff's deputy cars pulled residents from their apartments and onto the street, which resembled more of a parking lot than a thoroughfare. But as the minutes passed, those same residents withdrew back indoors, leaving the street almost completely occupied by police and Charles' family.

A rotating cast of detectives and uniformed deputies took turns speaking with Knoten, and each time she relayed the same story of the phone call and the argument five days earlier.

The family remained on the scene for nearly two hours, leaving only after Charles' covered body was placed in the back of an unmarked white van and taken from the scene.

Anyone with information about the shooting should contact the JPSO Investigations Bureau at 504-364-5300, or Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.

Mother was on phone with son when he was gunned down in MetairieKarlton Charles, 35, was shot to death Tuesday night outside a Metairie apartment complex in the 2400 block of Pasadena Avenue. A day later his mother, 62-year-old Carrie Knoten is still in shock that her son's life may have been taken because of an argument over his pickup truck.

View full sizeHomicide reported in the 2400 block of Pasadena Avenue in Metairie. (Google Maps)